Sex, lies and videotapes appear to dominate the dialogue this election cycle. Our electorate seems to be more focused on character traits than on policy proposals. Chances are that eligible voters will select their choice for President based on leaks and innuendo, rather than on what they believe their collective votes will mean for the future of our country. Unfortunately, many are unable to see the forest for the trees. They are unable to understand, or unwilling to consider, the consequences of their selection, because they are concentrating on all the surface noise. Buyer beware!
George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, has been quoted saying: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The recent influx of populist movements across the globe, and their influence on the political discourse at home and abroad, has reminded some of us of the populist uprising that took place in Germany immediately following World War One. It could be beneficial to look at how our current political environment resembles relevant influences that were dominant in Weimar Germany.
While trying to recover from the effects of losing the war, German leaders attempted to create a modern liberal democracy. In a country that had up to then only known militarism and authoritarian monarchy, this proved to be difficult. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June of 1919, required Germany to take full responsibility for the loss and damage during the war, forced it to disarm, make territorial concessions, and pay $31.4 billion in reparations (equal to $442 billion in 2016 money). The Weimar Republic confronted obstacles at every turn. The terms of the Treaty were impossible to comply with. Simultaneously, and legislatively, the Russian revolutions of 1917, and the consequent influence of the Communist International, effectively prevented cooperation among the strongest political parties represented in the Reichstag. When the world descended into the "Great Depression" the end was in sight. By the election of 1933 "Weimar" was effectively done.
With "war guilt" hanging over everyone's head, an economy in shambles, unemployment rampant, and the national parliament unable to agree on even the simple things, a populist belief in the power of regular people, and in their right rather than that of a small group of political insiders or wealthy elite, to control their government, took hold. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) co-opted the national mood, and translated its sentiment into a political platform that contained: opposition to "Versailles," cultural superiority of the Aryan race, anti-Semitism, anti-Communism, anti-parliamentarianism, anti-immigrant, Germany first, and economic isolationism. With support of the disenfranchised middle class and an autocratic elite, Hitler parasitized the movement, and shifted it to the ideological right. Six days before the 1933 elections, Nazi storm troopers unleashed a campaign of violence against the Communist Party, trade unionists, the Social Democratic Party, and the center-right Catholic Party. Even so, Hitler only received 43.9% of the vote, and needed to coalesce with the German National People's Party to give the NSDAP a tiny majority in the Reichstag. With their help he was elected Chancellor. Within two weeks he acquired dictatorial powers, and within months all other parties were banned. We know the rest.
So, what do we learn from this? What was once considered an anomaly, has become a trend. Nationalist and populist politicians have begun to assume power in many countries. The end is nowhere in sight. Ant-Semitism, in many places accompanied by Islamophobia, is cropping up all over. The migrant crisis in Europe revived a strong sense of populism. In country after country, anti-immigrant attitudes are blended with a nativist sentiment, focused on effecting cultural purification. Racial profiling, anti-trade, anti-globalization, and economic protectionism arguments feed into discussions similar to those prevalent during the troubled Weimar experiment. Messianic and pathological narcissists have taken center-stage in a growing number of countries. Russia has Vladimir Putin. Hungary elected Viktor Orban and his far-right Fidesz party on the premise of keeping migrants out, and keeping Hungary's national identity pure. In Poland Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his Law and Justice Party are converting its constitution and judicial system to more closely reflect an authoritarian past. The National Front, France's third largest party, is lead by politicians who once proposed to use the Ebola virus to take care of France's "immigration problem." On December 4, Austria will most likely elect Norbert Hofer its first Neo-Nazi President since World War Two.
And the Philippines just elected a new President, Rodrigo Duterte, who has already been accused of having his hand in the death of as many as 4,000 suspected drug offenders, while joking about the Holocaust. In this country our populist contender for the presidency, while subscribing to all the elements feeding into these pathological political positions, has suggested that, if successful, he would jail his opponent. If he loses, he appears disinclined to accept the outcome. Some of his supporters are already on record promising to start an insurrection.
While considering these worrying trends, I could not help but remember a poem by the anti-Nazi theologian Martin Niemoller:
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
My mother warned me in the late 1940's that "next time they will come for the Catholics." In 1942 they did come for my grandfather, a butcher, who was accused of feeding the Jews in our community. He was convicted and sent to the gallows in the Nazi re-education camp in Lahde, Germany.
I am far from predicting another holocaust. However, I am suggesting that when pathological narcissists assume power, nothing is off the table.
"What do you have to lose?" is not a rhetorical question.
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